The Kansas City Star
Atlas 9’s ‘surprise elements’ drew world-class dancer to KC
Atlas 9’s found its footing in Kansas City since opening in September 2025. More pieces to the 90s-themed interactive movie theater have been added since, inviting guests to unlock the secrets behind the films coming to life. It was also named the...
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Pentagon IDs 6 service members killed in refueling mission
The Department of Defense has identified the six U.S. service members killed during a refueling mission as part of the Iran war as three members of an Air Force refueling wing and three from the Ohio Air National Guard. The six crew members were...
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Kansas and Missouri agencies partner with ICE under Trump
A Christmas Eve drive in southwest Missouri was the last time two Guatemalan men living in Branson were free from the grasp of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That morning, cars streamed down I-44 outside of Springfield, taking in the...
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Leavenworth approves CoreCivic’s ICE detention center
Within days, immigrants arrested by federal authorities could find themselves locked inside CoreCivic’s razor wireringed concrete prison on the outskirts of Leavenworth. A multi-year campaign to reopen the shuttered facility as an ICE detention center...
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Kelce’s return cause to celebrate; how much depends on this
Even in the twilight of his career, the return of megastar Travis Kelce is an obvious cause for celebration for the Chiefs and their fans. The charismatic and intense Kelce embodies and even animates the culture of the Andy Reid-era Chiefs,...
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Renderings show plan for park atop South Loop highway downtown
A high-profile project that’s been in the works for years is close to reality in downtown Kansas City, but some council members are taking a critical eye before construction starts this summer. Officials presented the City Council with an update about...
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Trump witnesses return of bodies of US service members
President Donald Trump watched as the remains of the first American service members killed in the U.S. war with Iran arrived in the United States on Saturday afternoon at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The six Americans were Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien;...
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Iconic restaurant’s new vision is ‘Dear’ to owners’ hearts
James Beard-nominated chefs Johnny and Helen Jo Leach know full-well what Happy Gillis meant to the community. Craving breakfast this summer, the Leach family headed down to 549 Gillis St. for a bite with their daughter (it was her request, actually)....
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160-pound tuna cutting turns dinner into cultural experience
More than 70 people filled KC Craft Ramen on Monday night, crowding around tables and lining the walls. They were not there for ramen. At the center of the room sat a 160-pound bluefin tuna stretched across a prep table, its silvery body nearly...
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War expands as US, Israel, Iran ramp up regional strikes
U.S.-Israeli war on Iran reverberated across the region for a fourth day, with oil and gas prices surging and the world adjusting to a conflict that President Donald Trump says has no fixed timeline. Iran sent a fresh wave of missiles at countries...
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Johnson County’s best restaurant may be in a shopping center
a page in Swetha Newcomb’s childhood diary, second-grade script foretells her future. “I can’t wait till I’m older, and I can walk up and down in my restaurant in my fancy outfit,” wrote her younger self. Now 31, Newcomb’s words from long ago paint a...
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KC Curling Club sees surge in interest post-Olympics
By day, DeeAnn Wlodarski is an award-winning teacher at Grandview Middle School. In her spare time, for the last 10 years, she has served as president of the Kansas City Curling Club. So she has seen this phenomenon before. Every four years when the...
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KC hip-hop artists are changing the game
Jamel Thompson, known to his fans as The Royal Chief, has hosted many music release parties in his over more than a decade as a hip-hop artist. But on Feb. 12, he debuted a different creation — beer. The Kansas City native partnered with Vine Street...
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KC couple experiences ‘El Mencho’ mayhem in Puerto Vallarta
When my wife, Cindy, and I decided 10 years ago to seek out February weather relief, we sought tropical climates and places that looked peaceful yet energizing without being overrun by spring breakers. Puerto Vallarta seemed to have exactly what we...
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Savannah Guthrie offers $1M for tip leading to mom’s return
Television news anchor Savannah Guthrie said Tuesday that her family is offering up to $1 million for information that leads to finding her mother, Nancy, who was abducted from her home more than three weeks ago. Guthrie, a “Today” show host, made the...
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Data center encroaches on Independence couple’s dream life
and Howard Hoff like to describe their 8-acre property on Bly Road in eastern Independence — a former working cattle farm anchored by a stately house — as “a slice of heavard en.” When the Hoffs’ son was younger, his baseball team would practice in...
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Famous KCK diner changes hands after 50 years
For days, a line has snaked outside a beloved diner famous for their pork tenderloin sandwiches in Kansas City, Kansas, after the restaurant announced it was changing ownership. Christy’s Tasty Queen owners Lowell Christy and Marla Christy, both 79,...
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Discovering the Black engineering greats behind KC’s biggest landmarks
For many residents in Kansas City, the name Taliaferro & Browne may not ring any bells. But if you have taken a stroll through the riverfront, driven into the stadiums, went to a concert or caught a flight out of town, you are already unknowingly...
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Needlepoint shop brings hub of creativity to downtown Parkville
Hidden behind overgrown trees and bushes, a little pink house with chipped paint and a yard full of fallen leaves sat untouched for years, often overlooked by passersby and downtown Parkville shoppers. But beyond the unruly tree limbs and unswept...
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Influential civil rights icon twice sought presidency
The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, the Chicago-based Baptist minister, political figure and two-time presidential candidate whose soaring oratory and knack for capturing media attention made him a central figure in the Civil Rights Movement and national...
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KC-area dancer was in Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show
Independence-born dancer Logan Lanigan celebrated her 24th birthday last week in a big way: by performing alongside the most-streamed musician in the world. She was one of many dancers on the field during the Super Bowl LX halftime show perthe formed...
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Unknown DNA found on Nancy Guthrie’s property, SUV impounded
Investigators announced finding DNA evidence on the property of Nancy Guthrie’s Tucson home that does not belong to her or anyone close to her, in addition to impounding a Range Rover SUV on Saturday. No arrests have been made in the case two weeks...
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New KC bar built on unusual pairing: wine and bourbon
Husband and wife Howard Turley and Laura Turley have opened a new type of bar in Kansas City — one that pairs bourbon and wine. But it’s not a place to feel intimidated if bourbon isn’t your forte. Nestled in Waldo at 404 W. 75th St., Audrey’s Wine...
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Sinkhole turns couple’s Independence dream home into nightmare
When Cassandra Krul first laid eyes on her century-old Independence home, it was love at first sight. She and her husband Keenan Massey previously lived in an apartment in Mission, Kansas, and had been shopping around for a while when they came upon...
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Go behind the scenes of The Star’s photo archive at free event
For more than 145 years, The Star has created the first draft of Kansas City history, from the development of the park system to the upcoming World Cup. As the city’s paper of record, The Star has decades of arAfter chives that tell the stories of...
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‘People seem to love it’: KC creator finds success in ceramics
Butler, 30, who goes by Lila with her family, never considered herself a creative person before she started her art business, LilasClayground. “I do this all by myself. I don’t have any employees; the exception (is) my dad coming to help me pack...
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KC advances plan to privatize Plaza’s sidewalks
Kansas City is one step closer to giving up control of public sidewalks on the Country Club Plaza. Gillon Property Group, the firm that owns much of the property in the Plaza’s core, is seeking to take responsibility for the sidewalks around its...
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Housing plan in downtown KC could add 26-story tower
ambitious project in Kansas City could fill two vacant office buildings with hundreds of housing units while remaking the downtown skyline. Arnold Development Group has proposed remaking the area around 9th and Central streets, in the downtown loop,...
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Homan says he is pulling 700 agents out of Minneapolis
Tom Homan, the White House border czar, said Wednesday that the federal government would immediately withdraw 700 law enforcement officers from Minneapolis, scaling down the Trump administration’s immigration crackofficials down in the area. The...
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113-year-old KC building off Troost Ave. could get new life
A distinctive vacant brick building off Troost Avenue in Kansas City could be saved and once again house neighbors and local business. The owners of what’s known as the Bancroft Apartments, 4301 Troost Ave., are seeking local historic status for the...
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Community fights to feature a local artist in 18th & Vine project
On the north face of a new parking garage rising at 18th Street and Lydia Avenue, Kansas City has reserved a blank rectangle nearly the height of a three-story building, 29 feet tall by 20 feet wide. The space is slated for a permanent, wallbased...
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Federal judge decides not to block ICE surge in Minnesota
federal judge in Minnesota denied a request by the state government and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul on Saturday to temporarily block a surge of federal immigration agents that has led to three shootings, thousands of arrests and weeks of...
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Homan says crackdown could ease with more access to jails
Tom Homan, President Donald Trump’s border czar, said Thursday that the immigration crackdown in Minnesota could wind down if federal agents gained broader access to state jails, amid public outrage over the administration’s policies. “The withdrawal...
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Liberty High students raise voices in walkout to protest ICE
Standing in the freezing cold on the snow-covered football field Tuesday morning, dozens of students at Liberty High School chanted “ICE out now” in unison and raised handmade signs bearing pro-immigration messages, bible verses and lines from the...
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Doughnut fans line up at new storefront for Slow Rise
What are you willing to brave single-digit temperatures to stand in line for? For most people, that list is fairly short. But when The Star arrived at Slow Rise’s new brick and mortar just after its opening time, the store was already full, and a line...
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Construction underway in Westport to improve infrastructure
Where you used to park at the Westport Sun Fresh is now a gaping hole in the ground. The ditch that’s up to 19 feet deep dwarfs the heavy machinTurning ery inside of it. The construction worker at the bottom looks like an orange dot, and the sound of...
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Major storm blasts through eastern US
A major winter storm dumped heavy snow in the northeastern United States on Sunday as it moved eastward, threatening to disrupt transportation and daily life in New York and other major cities. Five people were found dead in New York City on Saturday,...
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Hundreds protest votes on abortion, sick leave, more
of people from Kansas City and across Missouri packed into the Missouri Capitol on Wednesday to protest a series of recent legislative attacks on direct and representative deapproved mocracy. The protest, organized by a range of local activist groups,...
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For $4.75 million, this 4-floor condo in downtown KC could be yours
You’ve probably seen the Kansas City skyline hundreds of times. But have you ever dreamed about living in one of the buildings that’s a part of it? This spring, that could be a reality for someone new. A multimillion dollar Kansas City condo in the...
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Arthur Bryant’s, after flooding and a redo, is open again
After being closed for close to two months, a Kansas City barbecue restaurant of more than a century is serving the public again. Arthur Bryant’s threw open its doors Friday at 1727 Brooklyn Ave., welcoming a steady stream of burnt...
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AT KANSAS CITY MLK DAY EVENT, VOLUNTEERS SERVE THOSE IN NEED
U. S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver shows off a new face sticker placed on his face by Lyla Ligon, 8, at Cleaver Family YMCA in Kansas City on Monday, January 19, 2026. Cleaver II was in attendance to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day as hundreds of...
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1,500 troops told to prepare for possible Minn. deployment
The Defense Department has told 1,500 active-duty troops to prepare for a possible deployment to Minnesota, where President Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act as a response to protests there against the killing of a Minneapolis...
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Lawyers for Renee Good’s family plan to investigate shooting
Lawyers representing the family of Renee Nicole Good, the woman killed by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis last week, announced on Wednesday that they were pursuing what they described as a civil investigation of the shooting. The law firm...
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Fire destroys Tonganoxie diner and a lot of family history
Polley’s heart sank as she pulled into downtown Tonganoxie Friday night. Flames were shooting out of Flashbacks, her family’s beloved small-town diner, and there was nothing to do but watch as the building — part restaurant, part local history...
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Anti-ICE protests spread nationwide
Mounting outrage over an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent’s killing of a woman in Minneapolis spilled into streets across the country Saturday, as crowds of protesters mobilized against what they called the excesses of the Trump...
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Minn. officials kept out of ICE shooting investigation
A top state law enforcement official said Thursday that federal agencies were denying Minnesota investigators access to evidence from a fatal shootCriminal ing by an immigration enforcement officer the day before, preventing them from participating in...
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After 47 years, retiring is bittersweet for La Fonda owners
Maria Medina Chaurand hears it often inside her restaurant. Customers will sip spoonfuls of menudo, or scarf down steaming fajitas, and proclaim: “This reminds me of the food my mother used to make.” The cumulative weight of those statements make...
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Maduro tells US judge he was ‘kidnapped’
Nicolás Maduro, the ousted Venezuelan president, and his wife pleaded not guilty Monday to federal charges including drug trafficking and other crimes, two days after they were captured in a U.S. military raid in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital....
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The Venezuelan oil industry Trump is planning to revive
Venezuela’s oil industry would “make a lot of money” with the United States behind it, President Donald Trump said Saturday in a news conference to confirm the capture of the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, who is facing federal drugs and weapons...
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Trump abandons efforts to deploy National Guard to three cities
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would abandon, for now, efforts to deploy the National Guard in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon. The decision comes after the Supreme Court ruled last week that Trump could not deploy troops in...
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KC dad launched a trendy art subscription after art went viral
Theo Davis moved to Kansas City 10 years ago, and instantly felt at home. The 40-year-old Washington D.C. native had always had an affinity for art, but it wasn’t until a few years later that he began dabbling in selling his work, letting his love for...
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Top photos help tell story of KC in 2025
It’s been a busy 2025 in Kansas City. And Star photographers were along every step of the way to capture it. It all started with a massive snowstorm that dropped over a foot of snow across the metro, shuttering schools for days. Then the Chiefs lifted...
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Upon move, Chiefs fans weigh in on ticket prices, tailgating
Kansas City Chiefs fans had mixed emotions during the Christmas Day tailgate before taking on the Denver Broncos. The Thursday night game was the first following the news that the team would be leaving GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, their home for...
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Bodies of National Guard soldiers killed in Syria return home
The remains of two Iowa National Guard soldiers killed in an ambush in Syria arrived at the Iowa National Guard base in Des Moines, with funeral services for both scheduled for this weekend. The bodies of Staff Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard and Staff...
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Olathe officials worked in secret to score Chiefs facilities
Olathe officials worked under a nondisclosure agreement with the Kansas City Chiefs as part of an effort to bring the NFL team to town — keeping plans under wraps for two years. Monday’s announcement from state officials regarding the incentive...
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Sources: Chiefs to announce move to Kansas, new stadium
The Kansas City Chiefs informed administrative officials that they would announce their move to Kansas on Monday, according to sources who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The move was pending the...
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After 40 years, KC’s Scrooge calling it quits
Gary Neal Johnson’s last time is now. After this, you won’t see him anymore. As Ebenezer Scrooge, that is. Johnson’s been a mainstay around Kansas City’s live theater scene for 44 years, with 24 of those spent playing Scrooge, the main character in...
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Demolition of one of Kansas City’s oldest buildings begins
The project to demolish one of one of the oldest buildings in Kansas City is underway. Built in 1888, the Jeserich building on the corner of 31st and Main Streets in Kansas City was recently declared unsafe and is getting demolished. After standing...
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Baker creates gingerbread replicas of historic KC buildings
This is the fourth Christmas professional baker Michelle Tobiason has indulged in an eye-popping passion project of building huge gingerbread replicas of historic Kansas City buildings. She has constructed Union Station, the Western Auto building and...
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Christal Watson sworn in as KCK mayor/CEO: ‘Let’s get busy’
A changing of the guard has happened in Kansas City, Kansas. And with that, Mayor Christal Watson said she’s ready to get to work. “It will take all of us to do this work,” Watson told residents who filled Memorial Hall on Monday. “It is going to take...
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JoCo boy, 9, known as ‘Menorah Man’ for whimsical creations
Third-grader Noah Unell is a Rubik’s cube whiz and a hustling point guard who can spin a basketball on his finger like a Harlem Globetrotter. He lives with his mom, dad and little sister, Ella, in Overland Park where on Sunday they celebrated the first...
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KC teacher builds reading culture in school with no library
English teacher in his 14th year, Christopher Leavens speaks fast and animated, with his eyes often growing wide when he’s talking about readtrol, ing. A good book, he says, as a matter of fact, can change a kid’s life. Just being a reader also helps...
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Brunch restaurant closes, cites Westport controversy
A Kansas City brunch restaurant has announced its departure from a Westport space at the center of a $70 million lawsuit alleging racial discrimi“This nation in leasing decisions. Holy Brunch released a statement on social media saying it will no...
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Johnson County neighbors rally against Royals stadium
With no determination as to where a new ballpark stadium could go, a group of residents organized a community meetcommunity ing to hear feedback and concerns around the Royals possibly becoming a new neighbor. “I think it’s kind of grim and...
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One bite of a cookie led to surge in sales for KC baker
Thursday was National Cookie Day, and Nichole Taylor was baking, as she often is, in the tiny back kitchen at Sister Anne’s Records & Coffee. “Sorry for all the cookie dust,” Taylor said, brushing flour off her apron. “I feel like I’ve made a billion...
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Lawrence man transforms donated wood into toys for KC kids
As Jay Morris describes how he and a bunch of helpers use chunks of donated wood to create children’s toys each Christmas, one of those volunthe teers interrupts. “Jay, we got a wobbly,” neighbor Steve Wood hollers out from across the small woodshop...
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Trump awarded inaugural FIFA peace prize
President Donald Trump has been angling for a peace prize and FIFA delivered during Friday’s 2026 World Cup draw in Washington. The soccer governing body announced during the event that Trump was being awarded the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize. “This...
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Teen home from college found dead; family seeks public’s help
A talkative but resilient scholar. A young woman headed toward bright future while wearing a million-dollar smile. These words describe Elayjah Murray, according to family members, who was found dead in south Kansas City over Thanksgiving weekend....
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Meet the three finalists to be KC’s next fire chief
Three men with decades of experience from fire departments across the country are finalists to head the Kansas City Fire Department, the city announced Tuesday. The candidates, from Houston, Orlando and the Washington, D.C., area will be introduced at...
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New KC Black-owned media hub uplifts promising creatives
Grammy-nominated producer Joseph Macklin said he had to leave his hometown of Kansas City in order for him to pursue his dreams. His ventures in Los Angeles allowed him to work with superstars like Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber. Despite his success,...
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Winter’s first snow blankets Kansas City, closing schools
first snow of the winter arrived in Kansas City on Monday — and it packed a wallop, blanketing the metro with several inches and bringing near white-out conditions on some area highways. Snowflakes began falling early in the morning commute and...
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Online Black Friday shoppers spend a record $11.8 billion
The nation’s online shoppers spent a record $11.8 billion on Black Friday, which exceeded the amount spent during instore visits on the day after Thanksgiving. Adobe Analytics data show a combined total of more than 1 trillion online visits to...
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14 ways to celebrate holiday season around KC
The holiday season in Kansas City traditionally kicks off with the switching on of the Plaza lights on Thanksgiving evening, but holiday activities have actually been going on for more than a week now. “Holiday Reflections,” one of the area’s most...
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HAPPY
A new federal lawsuit alleges that several out-of-state companies are engaged in an effort to sabotage a campaign seeking to strike down Missouri’s congressional map through a series of mysterious contracts previously revealed by The Star. The lawsuit...
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FIRST LADY GREETS 2025 WHITE HOUSE CHRISTMAS TREE
The White House on Monday welcomed its official Christmas tree to the executive mansion for the 2025 holiday season. First lady Melania Trump greeted a 25-foot concolor fir tree in the afternoon on the front steps of the White House North Portico, and...
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